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Welcome to Health in the Balance

Health in the Balance is an online knowledge center for professionals engaged in promoting healthy living and strengthening behavioral health for children and teens. Here you can:

Find articles, tools, and resources to help you understand the issues and take intelligent action.

Learn more about 95210 for Health®, an easy-to-remember formula for promoting healthy living for children and teens.

Keep up with the latest news in childhood health/behavioral health research, policy, and practice (scroll down or check the right-hand menu).

Health in the Balance is provided as a public service of Community Health Solutions. To learn more about how we can help your organization or community promote healthy weight for children and teens, contact us at chs@chsresults.com or 804.673.0166.

The National Sleep Foundation, in collaboration with experts from a variety of groups including the AAP, conducted a formal literature review and updated recommendations on how much sleep is needed at different ages. The recommendations now suggest 14 to 17 hours for newborns, 11 to 14 hours for toddlers, 9 to 11 hours for school-aged children and 8 to 10 hours for teenagers.

This report reviews the current literature on sleep patterns in adolescents, factors contributing to chronic sleep loss (ie, electronic media use, caffeine consumption), and health-related consequences, such as depression, increased obesity risk, and higher rates of drowsy driving accidents. The report also discusses the potential role of later school start times as a means of reducing adolescent sleepiness.

MakingHealthEasier.org is an interactive social networking site where CDC-funded communities and their partners can share stories and resources and engage with people and other communities around obesity and tobacco issues.

"Burn to Learn," that draws attention to the fact that students who get high grades are twice as likely to get regular physical activity compared to students who get low grades. The infographic also highlights the benefits of physical activity on the mind and body including improving behavior and focus and boosting positive attitude.

To access a series of resource articles on physical education in schools from the CDC web site, MakingHealthEasier.org, click here.

Researchers conducted a randomized parallel group study to determine the impact of an experimental sleep extension (addition of 1 hour of sleep relative to baseline habitual sleep duration on weekdays) and experimental sleep restriction (elimination of 1 hour of sleep relative to baseline habitual sleep duration on weekdays) on child behavior in school.

Conclusions: A modest extension in sleep duration was associated with significant improvement in alertness and emotional regulation, whereas a modest sleep restriction had opposite effects.

To read the free abstract or access the full article (requires a subscription), click here.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of positive screens for social-emotional problems among preschool-aged children in a low-income clinical population and to explore the family context and receptivity to referrals to help guide development of interventions.

Conclusions: In a clinical sample, 1 in 4 low-income preschool-aged children screened positive for social-emotional problems, and most parents were amenable to referrals to preschool or early childhood mental health. This represents an opportunity for improvement in primary prevention and early intervention for social-emotional problems.